Published on : Tuesday, July 2, 2019
WTTC said that at least 53 biometric systems are used by the industry for everything from airline boarding to hotel check-in. Each is typically unique to a particular venue. For example, British Airways’ boarding gates in New York, Los Angeles, London and Orlando use facial recognition, while Clear, a New York-based private security screening company, uses iris and fingerprint scans to move passengers through security checks.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC’s President and CEO said, “Right now it’s very fragmented. We need to make sure that there is some interoperability among these different models.”
Guevara said that reducing travel friction and increasing security is vital for the global tourism industry, which is expecting passenger growth from 4.6 billion this year to 8.2 billion in 2037, and this is a surge that current methods are unable to handle.
In the past, passengers have expressed concerns about their privacy when asked to share biometric data. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency in the US government’s executive branch, said that it would evaluate benefits and privacy concerns arising from biometric tech use in aviation.
Last week, Delta Air Lines Inc. said that it would expand facial-recognition boarding for international flights at 49 gates at its Atlanta, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City hubs. Delta and JetBlue Airways Corp. started experimenting with biometric data two years ago; American Airlines Group Inc. started tests with such boarding in Los Angeles in December.